The Fatdog team (Kirk, James, SFR and step) is happy to announce the next version of Fatdog64, 720 Beta.

Fatdog64 720 Beta is the next iteration of Fatdog64. It is still built on the same base as Fatdog64 710 so it has high-degree of compatibility with 710 packages, however it has been expanded, improved, and modified to meet today's challenge.

Much of the improvements in this release are from SFR and step.

We like to thanks those who have provided feedback, suggestions, advices, bug reports, bug fixes in the previous releases. You know who you are.

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Major breaking changes
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As usual, we neither support nor recommend carrying over your savefile/savefolder from older version of Fatdogs (="Fatdog does not update from any previous versions"); however, if you do, there are a few gotchas that you definitely need want to know in this version.

1. Spot's home directory has been moved from /root/spot to /home/spot. This has repercussions. Please read the details here.

2. Internal samba and samba rox-app ("Shares") have been revised and improved. Together with Linux kernel's breaking changes (security improvements due to SMB1), your old "Shares" will no longer work; they need to be deleted and re-created.

Note 1: We don't ship with Seamonkey 2.49.1 because currently it cannot build the Calender extension (Lightning) for Mail. This has been an on-going problem for the Seamonkey team which we managed to work around in previous release; but not in 2.49.1

Note 2: We shipped with Flash Player 11.x. This is because Flash Player 11.x is the version that supports DRM, required for some protected video streaming sites.
Newer versions of Flash don't. You can update Flash yourself from the Control Panel if you want to, but if you do, you won't be able to use DRM-ed services anymore.

Note 3: We have updated and expanded the Help and FAQ documents. They are available both online here and offline in Fatdog (file:///usr/share/doc/faqs/faq.html) and in Menu System -> Fatdog Help. Please invest time to read these documents to clarify issues, especially for new users.

We don't usually provide extra kernel drivers for beta releases; but since we already have built it, we have uploaded Nvidia proprietary drivers version 340.104 for your enjoyment. It is located in the same location of the ISO. All you need to do is download it, use the System SFS Loader to load it (and make sure it is loaded at next boot), and then reboot. Before you do this, please ensure that your Nvidia card is supported by version 340.104.

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Beta period
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If there is no bad bugs happening, we are hoping to publish the Final release before Christmas.

At the time of release, Fatdog 720 now has more than 1750 packages (both official and contributed) in its official repository; not counting contributed packages stored in other repos (smokey01.com) and else where, as documented in Contributed Fatdog64 Packages.

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ISO Builder Note
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If you like to build your own ISO, we have uploaded the current ISO builder as well as the 720beta package list here (builder dated 2017.11 and 720b-package list).

Enjoy.Last edited by fatdog on Wed 20 Dec 2017, 13:52; edited 11 times in total

Slow Boot
If you perform manual frugal install, please make sure that the following will result in a VERY SLOW boot of Fatdog.
1. You use grub4dos or grub-legacy
2. You put Fatdog vmlinuz and initrd in ext4 partition
3. The partition above is BIG (16G is considered BIG).

This is because while grub legacy and grub4dos can read from ext4, they can do so OH VERY VERY SLOWLY. This, when combined with a slow BIOS, can result in booting time exceeding 10 minutes.

To make Fatdog boot faster, there are a few things you can do, in order of sensibilities:
1. Put Fatdog64 in anything other than ext4. Ext3 is good, ext2 is good, FAT is good. But avoid ext4. If you can only do one thing, do this one.
2. Split Fatdog's large initrd.
3. Use a smaller partition (1 - 2GB) that is dedicated to hold Fatdog.
4. Use another bootloader.

Missing Firmware
We have changed the way we handle firmware in 720. It's possible some firmware we would like to include is missing. If you find something doesn't work, like your network card, check if you are missing firmware. Open a terminal and type dmesg Then look for messages about missing firmware. Let us know and we may include it for final.

Kodi SFS
If you download and use the kodi.sfs from SFS manager you may encounter an error. Forum member chiron has found the solution.

Quote:

Regarding Kodi, it's just a missing symlink. libsmbclient.so.0.2 is present, and in the Kodi SFS, also the symlink from libsmbclient.so.0 is. But in 720 somehow does not make it into the top layer of the filesystem. Manually created the symlink, and it works.

OpenGL 2.1 and Intel graphics
In their wisdom, Intel has the newer Mesa drop support OpenGL 2.1 on certain "lesser" graphics card.
But for now, this can be "fixed". Details here._________________-= The Fatdog Team (kirk, jamesbond, SFR and step) =-
Contributed Fatdog64 packages thread
This account is used for announcements only. Send PM directly to members' handle.Last edited by fatdog on Thu 07 Dec 2017, 07:31; edited 7 times in total

Tried it on a macbook and it looks good!
The kworker bug is still there (a kernel issue with macbooks- unrelated to FD).
I liked that it tried to handle the the high resolution monitor but auto-setting global font size to such a high number totally messes up the appearance.
Batterymeter had to be told* to look also in /sys/class/power_supply to find out if we have a battery.
The default brightness (40) was kind of low I think but I guess this depends on the hardware one uses.
I still find strange that at first reboot after you make a savefile, asks again for language/keyboard/time etc setup that were set on the first (from CD) boot.
So just very minor "issues". Overall looks very nice.

Anyone know how to get it booted frugally? Boy, I can already tell I am not keen on this slamming everything into a huge initrd. It's gonna make troubleshooting and problem hunting even more troublesome for the small non-fatdog-team user than is warranted. Barry already drives me nuts, lol, with some of the things he has done in this regard with the Quirkies/Easys. But now my rock-steady Fatdogs too? Ugh..... Will have to continually be coming on here to post when faced with a problem since the Bismarck (aka the 'initrd') is completely loaded for battle is only one ship. Too easy to sink...just like the literal one of lore

She still won't frugal boot. It just freezes up. There's a problem, and its not my end and/or my UUID (trust me, I already have multiple 'frugals' setup, and have literally done at least 500 of them over the years).

Also note, I've now tried 'frugal' booting the ISO on an Intel core i3 laptop, and two amd 64-bit machines, all with 8GB or ram or more, and all effortlessly booting other pups frugally. Still no go. She just sits there and does nothing and cannot boot herself

Again, there's a problem with this ISO release for 'frugal' booting, and since everything is hammered together into the initrd, it makes it near impossible to find out exactly what the problem is for 'frugal' booting.

Hope you all find out what it is. Full installs of Fatdog or any pup/ddog never happen around these parts Last edited by belham2 on Fri 01 Dec 2017, 19:34; edited 1 time in total

Is that the kodi.sfs from step? It is probably linked to samba3. We ditched samba3 and moved on to samba4; so kodi.sfs will have to be rebuild. Will probably have to wait until step returns from is travel._________________Fatdog64, Slacko and Puppeee user. Puppy user since 2.13.
Contributed Fatdog64 packages thread.

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